QUARTERLY WINTER 2018 | VOL. 61 NO. 1 Collecting, Preserving, and Celebrating Ohio Literature Winter 2018 1 Contents QUARTERLY WINTER 2018 FEATURES BOARD OF TRUSTEES EX-OFFICIO Karen Waldbillig Kasich, Columbus 4 The Dunbar House ELECTED President: Daniel Shuey, Westerville Ohio Literary Landmarks Vice-President: John Sullivan, Plain City Secretary: Geoffrey Smith, Columbus 8 The Language of Poetry Treasurer: Jay Yurkiw, Columbus 16 Amit Majmudar Gillian Berchowitz, Athens Rudine Sims Bishop, Columbus Ohio's First Poet Lauareate Helen F. Bolte, Columbus Katie Brandt, Columbus Lisa Evans, Johnstown BOOK REVIEWS Bryan Loar, Columbus Mary Heather Munger, Perrysburg Louise Musser, Delaware Claudia Plumley, Dublin 18 Nonfiction Cynthia Puckett, Columbus David Siders, Cincinnati 22 Fiction Yolanda Danyi Szuch, Perrysburg 27 Young Adult Jacquelyn L. Vaughan, Dublin APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF OHIO 28 Middle Grade Carl Denbow, Ph.D., Athens Carol Garner, Mount Vernon 29 Children’s H.C. "Buck" Niehoff, Cincinnati TRUSTEES EMERITUS Francis Ott Allen, Cincinnati BOOKS AND EVENTS Christina Butler, Ph.D., Columbus James Hughes, Ph.D., Dayton George Knepper, Ph.D., Stow 32 Book List Robert Webner, Columbus 41 Coming Soon OHIOANA STAFF Executive Director..............David Weaver Office Manager...............Kathryn Powers Library Specialist............Courtney Brown Program Coordinator........Morgan Peters Editor...............Leslie Birdwell Shortlidge Co-Editor..................Stephanie Michaels The Ohioana Quarterly (ISSN 0030-1248) is currently published four times a year by the Ohioana Library Association, 274 East First Avenue, Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio 43201. Individual subscriptions to the Ohioana Quarterly are available through membership in the Association; $35 of membership dues pays the required subscription. Single copy $6.50. U.S. postage paid at Columbus, Ohio. Send address changes to Ohioana Quarterly, 274 E. First Ave., Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio, 43201. Copyright © 2018 by the Ohioana Library Association. All rights reserved. Printed by PXPOHIO. 2 | Ohioana Quarterly From the Director Dear Friends, Across the hills and down the narrow ways, And up the valley where the free winds sweep, The earth is folded in an ermined sleep That mocks the melting mirth of myriad Mays. This is the opening stanza of the poem, “A Winter's Day” by the immortal Ohio master of verse, Paul Laurence Dunbar. What better way to introduce this winter issue of the Ohioana Quarterly, which is dedicated to Ohio poets and poetry? Dunbar's historic home takes center stage as the fifth in our series of “Ohio Literary Landmarks.” Bryan Loar journeys to Dayton where, at the turn of the last century, the son of slaves and a childhood friend of the Wright Brothers went from being a $4-per-week elevator operator to one of the most celebrated poets of his time. Our special thanks to the Ohio History Connection, which manages Dunbar House as a state memorial, the first to be dedicated to an African American when it was opened to the public in 1936. Governor John Kasich has just announced the second Poet Laureate for the state of Ohio: Dave Lucas, who is included in our "Language of Poetry" feature story in this issue. We're delighted to have sat down with the first Ohio Poet Laureate—Amit Majmudar—for a conversation about the people, places, and experiences he encountered during his two years in that singular role. But why stop at one poet when you can have ten? In addition to our conversation with Amit, we present a “virtual” roundtable with nine other poets who live, work, and write in Ohio. Their lively discussion shows why Ohio is, and always has been, a great home for poets and poetry. Of course, as with every issue of the Quarterly, you'll also find reviews, a list of titles received, and a calendar of upcoming events. And, in keeping with our poetry theme, we thank poet and author Michael J. Rosen for sharing his personal thoughts in our Support Ohioana pages. ON THE COVER A photograph of the legendary Speaking of upcoming events, mark your calendars now for Saturday, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar April 14, as we present the twelfth annual Ohioana Book Festival. (1872-1906), courtesy of the Each year the event gets bigger and better—and it's still free and open Ohio History Connection. to the public. We look forward to seeing you there! David E. Weaver Executive Director Winter 2018 3 The Dunbar House By Bryan Loar The Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial is an seven, Paul wrote verse. He was encouraged throughout incredible literary landmark located just west of the his school years and found success during his time at Miami River and downtown Dayton. The memorial is an Dayton’s Central High School. The only black student important testament to the power of poetry—a force that in his class, Dunbar was the class president, school transcends race, class, and geography. paper editor, and president of the Philomathean Society, the school’s literary organization. Two years before graduating, he published work in the Dayton Herald and THE VITALITY OF DUNBAR was the editor of the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper for the black community printed by fellow classmate Orville Before there was a Harlem Renaissance, Paul Laurence Wright and his brother Wilbur. The class song Dunbar Dunbar provided the bridge from the oral traditions of composed was sung at commencement. However, Paul’s an enslaved people to a broader audience and brought to early success and acceptance were often impeded by light the pride, aspirations, anger, and joys of the black living in an era of prejudice. community. He was one of the first black writers to become nationally known, honored twice by President After his graduation in 1891, racist attitudes kept Dunbar Theodore Roosevelt, and called the “most promising out of journalism and law, forcing him into menial young colored man in America” by Frederick Douglass. labor as an elevator operator. Trying to support himself Dunbar influenced innumerable writers and poets, and his widowed mother on $4 a week was extremely including Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient challenging. However, Paul persisted. He used his free Maya Angelou. moments on the elevator to read and write, and, in 1892, he was invited to address the Western Association of A child of former slaves, Paul was born in Dayton, Ohio, Writers, an opportunity arranged by a former teacher. in 1872. He led a momentous and challenging life until his untimely death at the age of 33. From as early as After his address, Dunbar began to receive inquiries about speaking engagements. In 1893 with the help of Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton, Ohio financial backing, he self-published his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy. Selling them for $1 to passengers riding his elevator, he repaid his debts and now had a tangible product of his creativity. With Dunbar’s second book, Majors and Minors, his career skyrocketed with a favorable, albeit racist, review in Harper’s Weekly. Within six short years, he moved to New York, traveled to London, moved to Washington, D.C., worked for the Library of Congress, relocated to Colorado, gave numerous readings stateside and abroad, battled alcoholism and an abusive temper, and married and then separated from his wife, Alice Ruth Moore. 4 | Ohioana Quarterly In 1899 Dunbar was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and Built in the late 1800s with such additions as a summer by 1904 his health was such that he returned to Dayton kitchen and upstairs bathroom, the Dunbars’ two-story to live with his mother. By 1906, Dunbar was dead. In brick home is modest and welcoming. Walking in, one just 13 years, Paul published his entire body of work, an immediately feels at home—the sound of the wooden incredible feat. exterior door opening, the sight of Paul’s portrait above a hearth, and the warm light cascading into the entryway envelope visitors. Downstairs, guests will find a common INTEGRITY IN WRITING area with a fireplace, a formal room with Matilda’s bible, dining room, kitchen, and summer kitchen. Much of At the dawn of the twentieth century, Paul Dunbar was the furniture is original, and the tasteful wallcoverings well known and regarded for his dialect poetry, even are original, reproductions from the original prints, or though it constituted only a portion of his total body period reproductions. Upstairs, visitors are greeted with of work. In all, Dunbar wrote more than 400 poems, even more treasures. four novels, four collections of short stories, numerous uncollected stories, lyrics performed on Broadway, On the second floor, rooms are flooded with gorgeous libretti, and editorials that remain relevant. natural light. The furnishings and personal items give the sense that Paul or Matilda Dunbar might turn the Dunbar’s oeuvre is multifaceted, even contradictory. corner at any moment and cordially greet their visitors. Poems like “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy,” as Walking towards the back of the house, hearing footsteps well as the short story “The Lynching of Jube Benson," resound on century-old wood flooring, one finds what specifically address brutality and injustice. When Paul is rumored to be Paul’s toothbrush in the upstairs writes “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile,” his bathroom. The bathroom with full bath, a luxury at thoughts are clear on a society of repression. However, the turn of the twentieth century, also houses original other works, like his novel, The Fanatics, have been wallpaper tucked away in a small cubby. Leading to the criticized for fueling stereotypes and producing bathroom are Matilda’s room and an attached smaller caricatures of the black community. In contemplating Dunbar’s literary legacy and attempting to reconcile Matilda Dunbar. Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection.. these contradictions, poet and American Book Award- winner Nikki Giovanni writes, “The message is clear and available to us if we invest in Dunbar the integrity we hope others will give us.” THE DUNBAR HOME Stepping into the home of Matilda and Paul Dunbar, which features many of the original furnishings, is an incredible experience.